Five Families Homeless After New Tripoli Fire

A six-unit apartment house in New Tripoli was destroyed yesterday by a kitchen fire that spread throughout the building, leaving five families homeless.

"We were hampered by so many different walls and false ceilings, passageways and small rooms, we couldn't get to it," said New Tripoli Fire Chief Kenneth Shellhammer. "It's an old building. . . . There were too many apartments for a small building like this. And they were added in over the years. It's a real mess."

The 11:30 a.m. fire at the building on Route 143 sent plumes of smoke high into the sky. By 3 p.m., the fire seemed under control, said the chief, but an hour later it rekindled, keeping firefighters at the scene until 6 p.m.

The 16 residents lost almost all possessions and had no fire insurance, but they had places to stay, according to Forrest Kistler, director of the local American Red Cross. The Red Cross offered them one night of lodging, dinner and breakfast at a hotel and diner in Fogelsville.

John Kern of Allentown, owner of the two-story building, said five of the apartments were rented.

The fire started in the bottom rear apartment of Kim Krotzer, 21, who said she was boiling hot dogs on the electric stove for her two children. She left the room to get her baby, who had awakened, and she saw the stove and overhead cupboards on fire when she returned.

She got the fire extinguisher but couldn't get it to work, and a neighbor's extinguisher also failed.

"I grabbed the babies and we got out," she said.

Ed Figueroa, 24, who lived in the front apartment, said he smelled smoke and then went to the burning apartment with two extinguishers. "I tried to put it out, but the fire was too big," he said.

The fire chief said two spent extinguishers were found outside the building.

There was a little smoke when firefighters arrived, according to the chief, but the smoke increased as the fire quickly spread through the ceiling into the roof.

Firefighters set up fans to remove the smoke before they could enter the building, Shellhammer said.

The building had been a gas station and garage years ago. A wooden addition had been built on the front. Figueroa said his possessions in the addition were not harmed because it was separated from the rest of the building by a concrete wall.

Firefighters used water from a pond several hundred yards away.

Assisting were the Germansville, and Lynnport Community fire companies. The Woodlawn Fire Company of South Whitehall Township provided air packs.